How To: Restoration of Ford M8 armoured car US Ordnance number 7373

[Big D]

Hi all,

Most of my spare time this week has gone into completing the recoil system. This is the setup I used to put the recoil system back together. Others might have a better method but this worked well for me.

I used two pieces of 10mm plate at each end. On the coupler end, I cut a hole in the plate and welded an old bearing cup to the plate over the hole. The diameter of the cup was a good fit over that end of the cylinder. I welded another tubular piece of steel to the other plate to act as a locater for a ¾” socket to hold the nut on the end of the cylinder piston rod.

I used two 1 metre lengths of 18mm stainless steel threaded rod. The rod size seemed like a bit of overkill but it was all the local scrap metal supplier had on the shelf of a decent length, and the good bugger he is, he allowed me to take it home, do the job and then just return it.

I found that size of rod gave some reassurance when winding the tension up and compressing the spring and I wouldn’t recommend anything under ½” or 12mm. The 10mm plate was just starting to bend a little at the peak of the spring compression.

I got some brass folded up for the sides of the recoil system. I looked at buying brass channel but couldn’t find any the exact size. In the end I got a local sheetmetal fabricator to cut and fold some brass sheet. Unlike the original, the folding means there is a bit of a radius on the edges but hopefully with me using sheet that was slightly thinner than the original, this won’t be an issue. I used some 3mm diameter brass rod to secure the pieces to the cylinder. I will try the barrel sleigh on it soon.

An EBay search turned up a bronze bush of the same dimensions I needed for the mounting pin on the other side, so that is on the way to me. I am missing the little arm on the side of the recoil cylinder which I’m guessing is a valve of some sort, so I will find a suitable plug for that. I’ve noticed that the buffer pin on the head of the cylinder is bent, which is making it hard to screw this in, so I will need to straighten that.

I have the pedestal headlight mounting connectors completed and ready for hard wiring in the hull. Thanks to Willy for the electrical connectors and Paul for the black plastic housing.

That’s all for this week.